Tag Archives: Salmaan Taseer

Having resolved this year to increase focus on my writing, I have decided to not only to increase my writing on From The Pulpit but to also write elsewhere on the internet. Alhamdulillah, the first of these is the MuslimMatters site which just published my first post today. Insha’Allah I hope that this will be the first of many posts there. I am also working on a couple more areas and will keep the readers informed through From The Pulpit on these areas.

The below article, has been delayed a bit due to some reasons as it has been almost a month since the assassination of Salmaan Taseer. However, I hope that it will still serve its purpose. I am very humbled that the preface to this post has been written by Sheikh Yasir Qadhi who is an extremely inspiring personality. I hope my writing at MuslimMatters will give me a chance to interact with him and other scholars and learn from them Insha’Allah.

Br. Aly is a businessman and blogger based in Karachi, Pakistan. He sends us a brief picture of the scenarios that unfolded in his country in the aftermath of Governor Salmaan Taseer’s assassination by a member of his protective guard. Any views expressed in this article are entirely attributed to the author and may or may not reflect the views held by other writers writing for or affiliated with MuslimMatters.org.

The assassination of the Salmaan Taseer brought to the forefront many different issues regarding the political and religious crises in Pakistan. As with any issue, there are many facets and perspectives to consider, and it is simply not possible for an outsider (as we all are here in the West, even if some of us originate from Pakistan) to fully understand the nuances of the situation. Hence, it is wiser to speak in generalities rather than specifics and to allow people who live in the country to express their points of view.

The following represents one viewpoint from someone residing in the country. Personally, I found the views and opinions expressed in it to be very balanced – the author clearly understands that a simplistic response of which side was right and which wrong is not possible. There are clear elements of truth on both sides and clear elements of exaggeration and extremism on both sides as well.

As Muslims, we stand for truth and justice, and not for political parties and groups. Almost always, the truth is higher than any one party or group.

As a person who is of Pakistani origin, and who truly does feel a connection with and a love for the people of that land, all that I can say is that this chaos and confusion and bloodshed makes me extremely sad at what is happening, and very worried for the future of Pakistan. There is little that I can do sitting here, thousands of miles away, other than to pray to Allah to make the situation of the people of Pakistan easy.

And indeed, it is only Allah from whom help is sought, and to Him we turn for peace and security.

Yasir Qadhi

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As my first-born completed three years of life, the life of another was marked to end. As Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, walked out of a restaurant after lunch, a member of the elite force assigned to protect him, Malik Mumtaz Hussain Quadri, shot him mercilessly. The post-mortem report later reported 40 wounds on his body and 26 bullets were recovered from his body.

Those shots, while pitilessly shredding Taseer’s body, created aftershocks that split Pakistan along severe ideological fault lines. Suddenly, we had two highly polarized positions coming forth: Taseer the Martyr, the champion of the Liberals, the voice of reason and Quadri, the “Ghazi”, the Protector of Islam. Suddenly, people found themselves being asked, “Whose side are you on? Ours or theirs?” Within hours of the murder, Facebook pages sprang up in support of Quadri, praising him for his actions. On a side note, Facebook raced to shut down these pages immediately on the request of the Government of Pakistan, while they had refused to shut down the pages of “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” and other such anti-Islamic sites on the basis of freedom of speech. Incidentally, a search on Google pulled up a page that still exists on Facebook for the event. Talk about double standards!